Phys.org news tagged with:darpahttp://phys.org/
en-usPhys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine.From cameras to computers, new material could change how we work and playSerendipity has as much a place in science as in love. That's what Northeastern physicists Swastik Kar and Srinivas Sridhar found during their four-year project to modify graphene, a stronger-than-steel infinitesimally thin lattice of tightly packed carbon atoms. Primarily funded by the Army Research Laboratory and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, the researchers were charged with imbuing the decade-old material with thermal sensitivity for use in infrared imaging devices such as night-vision goggles for the military.http://phys.org/news/2015-08-cameras-material.html
Nanomaterials Sun, 02 Aug 2015 07:14:06 EDTnews357718436Four reasons why the Terminator is already hereAs Terminator: Genisys hits cinemas around the world, ScienceNetwork WA looks at some of the feats performed by robots in the Terminator films, and investigates how long until reality catches up with science fiction.http://phys.org/news/2015-07-terminator.html
Robotics Wed, 01 Jul 2015 09:18:02 EDTnews354961073In the event of robot apocalypse, just wait for a system crashDo you find yourself worried by the implications of Humans, Channel 4's new drama about the exploits of near-human intelligent robots? Have you ever fretted over the apocalyptic warnings of Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk about the threat of superintelligent artificial intelligence? Have your children ever lay wide-eyed thinking about robot drone armies, such as those in Marvel's film Avengers: Age of Ultron?http://phys.org/news/2015-06-event-robot-apocalypse.html
Other Wed, 17 Jun 2015 07:50:02 EDTnews353745098We can build remote-controlled rescue robots, but what's coming next is even more excitingRobots could one day save your life. That's the hope of those who involved in the DARPA Robotics Challenge, which recently came to an end in California recently.http://phys.org/news/2015-06-remote-controlled-robots.html
Robotics Tue, 16 Jun 2015 09:20:01 EDTnews353663027Air Force scientists are working on hypersonic air vehicleEngineers said the US Air Force is getting closer to testing a hypersonic weapon. They are developing a hypersonic weapon based on an experimental scramjet program. What is a scramjet? NASA said in a "scramjet," or Supersonic Combustion Ramjet, the oxygen needed by the engine to combust is taken from the atmosphere passing through the vehicle rather than from an onboard tank. "Researchers predict scramjet speeds could reach 15 times the speed of sound. An 18-hour trip to Tokyo from New York City becomes a 2-hour flight," said NASA.http://phys.org/news/2015-06-air-scientists-hypersonic-vehicle.html
Engineering Sun, 07 Jun 2015 16:37:55 EDTnews352913867South Koreans triumph in US robot challengeSouth Korean boffins carried home the $2 million top prize Saturday after their robot triumphed in a disaster-response challenge inspired by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdown in Japan.http://phys.org/news/2015-06-south-koreans-triumph-robot.html
Robotics Sun, 07 Jun 2015 06:40:01 EDTnews352877128Crowd-sourced formal verification program generates thousands of software annotationsThe initial phase of a DARPA program that used publicly accessible online games to accelerate the verification of software has helped produce hundreds of thousands of program annotations in common software programming languages, adding credence to the idea that digital games can be an effective means of crowdsourcing solutions to software problems. The results have inspired DARPA to launch a new round of games with the goal of extending the successes to date and learning more about the approach's potential. http://phys.org/news/2015-05-crowd-sourced-formal-verification-thousands-software.html
Software Thu, 28 May 2015 09:40:02 EDTnews352023700Shedding light on untapped information in photonsConventional optical imaging systems today largely limit themselves to the measurement of light intensity, providing two-dimensional renderings of three-dimensional scenes and ignoring significant amounts of additional information that may be carried by captured light. For example, many photons traverse complex paths punctuated by multiple bounces prior to entering the aperture of a camera or other imager—a process through which these photons pick up information about their surroundings. Beyond such directional variability, light enjoys other aspects or degrees of freedom—including variations in propagation time, polarization state and spectral content, as well as wave-related properties such as coherence, diffraction and interference—all of which provide potential mechanisms by which light can acquire and convey information. Most of this information remains untapped today.http://phys.org/news/2015-05-untapped-photons.html
Optics & Photonics Mon, 25 May 2015 08:46:37 EDTnews351762388'Deep web search' may help scientistsWhen you do a simple Web search on a topic, the results that pop up aren't the whole story. The Internet contains a vast trove of information—sometimes called the "Deep Web"—that isn't indexed by search engines: information that would be useful for tracking criminals, terrorist activities, sex trafficking and the spread of diseases. Scientists could also use it to search for images and data from spacecraft.http://phys.org/news/2015-05-deep-web-scientists.html
Computer Sciences Mon, 25 May 2015 07:00:30 EDTnews351756014European teams demonstrate progress in emergency response robotics since Fukushima disasterThree European teams – including the EU-funded WALK-MAN – will present their emergency-response robots to the world at the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) Finals from 5 to 6 June. They are among 25 teams showing how far robotics has come since the Fukushima disaster, as well as the obstacles still to be tackled.http://phys.org/news/2015-05-european-teams-emergency-response-robotics.html
Robotics Fri, 22 May 2015 10:30:02 EDTnews351506420Sweeper demonstrates wide-angle optical phased array technologyMany essential military capabilities—including autonomous navigation, chemical-biological sensing, precision targeting and communications—increasingly rely upon laser-scanning technologies such as LIDAR (think radar that uses light instead of radio waves). These technologies provide amazing high-resolution information at long ranges but have a common Achilles heel: They require mechanical assemblies to sweep the laser back and forth. These large, slow opto-mechanical systems are both temperature- and impact-sensitive and often cost tens of thousands of dollars each—all factors that limit widespread adoption of current technologies for military and commercial use.http://phys.org/news/2015-05-sweeper-wide-angle-optical-phased-array.html
Optics & Photonics Fri, 22 May 2015 09:40:17 EDTnews351506406Fast track program invites non-traditional roboticists to help bolster national securityThe past 10 years have seen an explosion of robotics advances from small businesses and individuals, thanks in part to lower manufacturing costs and the global rise of community workshops such as makerspaces and hackerspaces, which serve as incubators for rapid, low-cost collaboration and innovation. Unfortunately, the small-scale robotics community has tended to fly under the radar of traditional federal agencies and commercial technology providers, which generally rely on multi-year, multi-million-dollar contracts for technology development. This disconnect means that the U.S. government is not benefiting from some of the most cutting-edge robotics developers in the nation.http://phys.org/news/2015-05-fast-track-non-traditional-roboticists-bolster.html
Robotics Tue, 19 May 2015 09:20:04 EDTnews351245098Device may allow sensations in prosthetic handsTo the nearly 2 million people in the U.S. living with the loss of a limb, including U.S. military veterans, prosthetic devices provide restored mobility yet lack sensory feedback. A team of engineers and researchers at Washington University in St. Louis is working to change that so those with upper limb prosthetics can feel hot and cold and the sense of touch through their prosthetic hands.http://phys.org/news/2015-05-device-sensations-prosthetic.html
Engineering Wed, 13 May 2015 19:09:47 EDTnews350762974DARPA seeks a "100x zoom lens" for seeing distant space objects more clearlyImaging of Earth from satellites in space has vastly improved in recent years. But the opposite challenge—using Earth-based systems to find, track and provide detailed characterization of satellites and other objects in high orbits—has frustrated engineers even as the need for space domain awareness has grown. State-of-the-art imagery of objects in low Earth orbit (LEO), up to 2,000 km (1,200 miles) high, can achieve resolution of 1 pixel for every 10 cm today, providing relatively crisp details. But image resolution for objects in geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO), a favorite parking place for space assets roughly 36,000 km (22,000 miles) high, drops to just 1 pixel for every 2 meters, meaning many GEO satellites appear as little more than fuzzy blobs when viewed from Earth. Enabling LEO-quality images of objects in GEO would greatly enhance the nation's ability to keep an eye on the military, civilian and commercial satellites on which society has come to depend, and to coordinate ground-based efforts to make repairs or correct malfunctions when they occur.http://phys.org/news/2015-05-darpa-100x-lens-distant-space.html
Engineering Tue, 12 May 2015 09:10:01 EDTnews350638073Guided bullet demonstrates repeatable performance against moving targetsDARPA's Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance (EXACTO) program, which developed a self-steering bullet to increase hit rates for difficult, long-distance shots, completed in February its most successful round of live-fire tests to date. An experienced shooter using the technology demonstration system repeatedly hit moving and evading targets. Additionally, a novice shooter using the system for the first time hit a moving target.http://phys.org/news/2015-04-bullet.html
Engineering Tue, 28 Apr 2015 08:40:01 EDTnews349428429Program envisions "asleep-yet-aware" electronics that could revolutionize remote wireless sensorsState-of-the-art military sensors today rely on "active electronics" to detect vibration, light, sound or other signals. That means they constantly consume power, with much of that power and time spent processing what often turns out to be irrelevant data. This power consumption limits sensors' useful lifetimes to a few weeks or months when operating from state-of-the-art batteries, and has slowed the development of new sensor technologies and capabilities. Moreover, the chronic need to redeploy power-depleted sensors is not only costly and time-consuming but also increases warfighter exposure to danger.http://phys.org/news/2015-04-envisions-asleep-yet-aware-electronics-revolutionize-remote.html
Engineering Tue, 14 Apr 2015 09:50:02 EDTnews348220874DARPA seeks to create software systems that could last 100 yearsAs modern software systems continue inexorably to increase in complexity and capability, users have become accustomed to periodic cycles of updating and upgrading to avoid obsolescence—if at some cost in terms of frustration. In the case of the U.S. military, having access to well-functioning software systems and underlying content is critical to national security, but updates are no less problematic than among civilian users and often demand considerable time and expense. That is why today DARPA announced it will launch an ambitious four-year research project to investigate the fundamental computational and algorithmic requirements necessary for software systems and data to remain robust and functional in excess of 100 years.http://phys.org/news/2015-04-darpa-software-years.html
Software Thu, 09 Apr 2015 10:10:01 EDTnews347788278Successful demonstration of DARPA's Persistent Close Air Support (PCAS) systemClose air support (CAS)—delivery of airborne munitions to support ground forces—is difficult and dangerous because it requires intricate coordination between combat aircrews and dismounted ground forces (for example, joint terminal attack controllers, or JTACs). DARPA's Persistent Close Air Support (PCAS) program focuses on technologies to enable sharing of real-time situational awareness and weapons systems data through approaches designed to work with almost any aircraft. PCAS envisions more precise, prompt and easy air-ground coordination for CAS and other missions under stressful operational conditions and seeks to minimize the risk of friendly fire and collateral damage by enabling the use of smaller munitions to hit smaller, multiple or moving targets. This capability is critically important in urban environments.http://phys.org/news/2015-04-successful-darpa-persistent-air-pcas.html
Engineering Tue, 07 Apr 2015 08:46:38 EDTnews347615184DARPA seeks new positioning, navigation, timing solutionsThe Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), writing about GPS, said: "The military relies heavily on the Global Positioning System (GPS) for positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT), but GPS access is easily blocked by methods such as jamming. In addition, many environments in which our military operates (inside buildings, in urban canyons, under dense foliage, underwater, and underground) have limited or no GPS access." This raises the questions of what DARPA plans as a step up. Will DARPA introduce relevant new technologies? Let DARPA say it in its own words: "GPS has provided a tremendous strategic advantage to the U.S. military, but heavy reliance on GPS has also become a strategic vulnerability. The need to be able to operate effectively in areas where GPS is inaccessible, unreliable or potentially denied by adversaries has created a demand for alternative precision timing and navigation capabilities."http://phys.org/news/2015-03-darpa-positioning-solutions.html
Telecom Sat, 28 Mar 2015 09:41:15 EDTnews346754452Future US Navy: Robotic sub-hunters, deepsea podsThe robotic revolution that transformed warfare in the skies will soon extend to the deep sea, with underwater spy "satellites," drone-launching pods on the ocean floor and unmanned ships hunting submarines.http://phys.org/news/2015-03-future-navy-robotic-sub-hunters-deepsea.html
Robotics Sat, 28 Mar 2015 05:40:01 EDTnews346739054ATRIAS prepares for live demo at robotics challenge (w/ Video)If you are cool-headed enough to know that robots are incapable of sobbing just because researchers at the Oregon State University Dynamic Robotics Laboratory are kicking and hurling balls at them all the time, then so much the better. You can enjoy the success of ATRIAS withstanding its trials as a bipedal robot taking its kicks and dodgeball hits in stride at Oregon State University. ATRIAS is the name for human-scale bipedal robots. ATRIAS serves to demonstrate theoretical concepts for efficient and agile locomotion; the ultimate goal is walking and running outside in rough terrain.http://phys.org/news/2015-03-atrias-demo-robotics-video.html
Robotics Thu, 12 Mar 2015 16:20:02 EDTnews345394962Removing the communication barrier between humans and computersThe lifelong human imperative to communicate is so strong that people talk not only to other people but also to their pets, their plants and their computers. Unlike pets and plants, computers might one day reciprocate. DARPA's new Communicating with Computers (CwC) program aims to develop technology to turn computers into good communicators.http://phys.org/news/2015-02-barrier-humans.html
Computer Sciences Mon, 23 Feb 2015 08:40:02 EDTnews343902625HAPTIX starts work to provide prosthetic hands with sense of touchDespite recent advances in technology for upper-limb prostheses, artificial arms and hands are still unable to provide users with sensory feedback, such as the "feel" of things being touched or awareness of limb position and movement. Without this feedback, even the most advanced prosthetic limbs remain numb to users, a factor that impairs the limbs' effectiveness and their wearers' willingness to use them. In a step toward overcoming these challenges, DARPA has awarded prime contracts for Phase 1of its Hand Proprioception and Touch Interfaces (HAPTIX) program.http://phys.org/news/2015-02-haptix-prosthetic.html
Robotics Mon, 09 Feb 2015 09:00:05 EDTnews342692511Breakthrough technologies could pave the way for cheaper, faster small-satellite launches Through its Airborne Launch Assist Space Access (ALASA) program, DARPA has been developing new concepts and architectures to get small satellites into orbit more economically on short notice. Bradford Tousley, director of DARPA's Tactical Technology Office, provided an update on ALASA today at the 18th Annual Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)'s Commercial Space Transportation Conference in Washington, D.C. Tousley discussed several key accomplishments of the program to date, including successful completion of Phase 1 design, selection of the Boeing Company as prime contractor for Phase 2 of the program, which includes conducting 12 orbital test launches of an integrated prototype system.http://phys.org/news/2015-02-breakthrough-technologies-pave-cheaper-faster.html
Space Exploration Fri, 06 Feb 2015 10:10:01 EDTnews342437526DARPA to Atlas contest hopefuls: Time to cut the cordSuper Bowls. World Cups. Marathons. Wimbledon. Months and days are marked off by fans and supporters for big events and, for robotics watchers, June cannot come fast enough. The DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals will take place June 5 to 6, 2015 at Fairplex in Pomona, California and DARPA news for the Atlas robots has emerged on what fans can expect to see. Seven of the robots in the competition are of the Atlas type, i.e., seven teams are using an updated Atlas. As much as 75 percent of the Atlas is new, from the knees all the way up. Only 25 percent of the robot is from the old Atlas.http://phys.org/news/2015-01-darpa-atlas-contest-cord.html
Robotics Wed, 21 Jan 2015 05:00:02 EDTnews341038235Six-legged 'snake monster' is first of new breed of reconfigurable modular robots (w/ Video)(Phys.org)—Carnegie Mellon University's latest robot is called Snake Monster, however, with six legs, it looks more like an insect than a snake. But it really doesn't matter what you call it, says its inventor, Howie Choset—the whole point of the project is to make modular robots that can easily be reconfigured to meet a user's needs.http://phys.org/news/2015-01-six-legged-snake-monster-reconfigurable-modular.html
Robotics Wed, 14 Jan 2015 07:50:03 EDTnews340443553Carnegie Mellon developing online tools to detect and identify sex traffickersA contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is funding researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science who are seeking to undercut sex traffickers by developing online tools that target a key vulnerability: the need to advertise.http://phys.org/news/2015-01-carnegie-mellon-online-tools-sex.html
Internet Tue, 13 Jan 2015 12:11:42 EDTnews340373492Novel mathematical research for quantifying and predicting uncertainty in design modelsUncertainty is sometimes unavoidable. But in the world of scientific computing and engineering, at least, what's worse than uncertainty is being uncertain about how uncertain one is.http://phys.org/news/2015-01-mathematical-quantifying-uncertainty.html
Engineering Fri, 09 Jan 2015 09:20:05 EDTnews340015792Speedy, agile UAVs envisioned for troops in urban missionsMilitary teams patrolling dangerous urban environments overseas and rescue teams responding to disasters such as earthquakes or floods currently rely on remotely piloted unmanned aerial vehicles to provide a bird's-eye view of the situation and spot threats that can't be seen from the ground. But to know what's going on inside an unstable building or a threatening indoor space often requires physical entry, which can put troops or civilian response teams in danger.http://phys.org/news/2014-12-speedy-agile-uavs-envisioned-troops.html
Engineering Tue, 23 Dec 2014 08:50:02 EDTnews338546374Getting bot responders into shapeSandia National Laboratories is tackling one of the biggest barriers to the use of robots in emergency response: energy efficiency.http://phys.org/news/2014-12-bot.html
Robotics Tue, 16 Dec 2014 09:03:19 EDTnews337942991